Month: November 2025

In the days when the judges rules Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the county of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and lilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there.

Then Emilelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other woman named Ruth. But about ten years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her sons or her husband. (vv. 1-5. NLT)

Then Delilah pouted “How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You. have made fun of me three times now and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!” She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death with it.

Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, ‘for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”

Delilah realized that he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the Philistine rulers, “Come back one more time,” she said, ”for he has finally told me his secret.” So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called a man to shave off the seven locks of his hear. In this way, she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.

Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!”

When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.

So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison.

But before long, his hair began to grow back. (vv. 15-22, NLT)

“Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!” So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Elam.”

The Philistines retaliated by setting up a camp in Judah. and spreading out near the town of Lehi. The men of Judah asked the Philistines, “Why are you attacking us?”

The Philistines replied, “We’ve come to pay him back for what he did to us.”

So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson out of the cave in Edom. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?”

But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”

But the men of Judah told him, “We have to tie you up an hand you over to the Philistines.”

“All right.” Samson said, “But promise that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

“We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines,” they replied. “We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up fro the rock.

As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully over Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up, an killed 1,000 Philistines with it. (vv. 7-16, NLT)

Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried out to the Lord, “You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans?” So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place “The Spring of the One who Cried Out,” and it is still in Lehi to this day.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land. (vv. 17-20, NLT)

As his father was making final arrangements for marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite youn men. When the bride’s parents was him, they selected thirty young men from the town to be his companions.

Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of celebration, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.”

“All right,” they said, “let’s hear your riddle.”

So he said: “Our of the one who eats came something to eat; our of the strong came something sweet.”

Three days later they were still trying to figure it out. On the the fourth day, they said to Sampson’s wife, “Entire your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn down your father’s house with you in it. Did you invite us to the party just to make us poor?”

So Samson’s wife cam to him in tears and said, “You don’t love me; you hate me! Your have given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”

I haven’t given the answer to my father or mother, “he replied. “Why should I tell you?” So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the you men.

Before sunset of the seventh day, the men in town came to Samson with their answer: “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson replied, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!”

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife was given in mariage to Samson’s best man at the wedding. (vv. 10-2, NLT)

Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name?” For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.”

“Why do you ask my name” The angle of the Lord replied. “”It’s too wonderful for you to understand.”

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered ot on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as he and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of theLord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.

The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!”

But his wife said, “If the Lord were goin to kill us, He wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”

When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. (vv. 17-25, LT)

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, to the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed then for forty years.

In those days a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan live in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. So be careful; you. must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink no eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be curt. FOr he will be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.” (vv. 1-5, NLT)

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord saying,” Lord please let the man of God come back to us again and give us some more instructions about the son who is to be born.”

God answered Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of God appear once again to his wife while she was sitting in a field. U ther husband, Manoah, was not with her. So she quickly ran and told her husband, “The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!”

Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

So Manoah asked him, “When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy’s life an work?”

The angel of the Lord answered, “Be sure your wife follows the instructions I ave her. She must not eat grapes, or raisins, or drink wine or any alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food.”

Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for your to eat.”

I will stay,’ the angel of the Lord replied, ‘but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burn offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize it was the angel of the Lord.). (vv. 8-16, NLT)

Then Gideon said to God, “If You are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as You promised, prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to help me rescue Israel as You promised.” And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung it out in a whole bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered in dew. (vv. 36-40, NLT)

That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s heard, the one that is seven years old. Pul down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the alter, sing as fuel the wood from the Asherah pole you cut down.”

So Gideon took ten servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.

Early the next morning, as the people in the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down. In their place, a new alter had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed. The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash.

“Bring out your son,” the men of the down demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.”

But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Who ever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal is truly a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar.: From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar. (vv. 25-32 NLT)